I follow these threads and throw in a comment from time to time. My county just passed "drone" legislation, and as the president of a club I made it my point to get involved. The law that was passed says: A person may fly on his property, another persons property with permission and a public park if permission is given. Now my club flies on a closed landfill with permission from the Town. So we are ok, the same with the one other club in the county.
When this legislation came about, I met with the legislator along with a representative from the other club and our AMA District VP. We pretty much left the meeting leaving the legislator more educated about model aviation. My club puts on an annual air show for the public with assistance from the Town. They provide free food and advertising for us. The legislator is familiar with this event and we quickly made him aware that we are not the people flying next to people's windows and taking pictures among other things. As the public meetings progressed I realized that I needed to reach out to the lawmakers and get them to see the difference between us and the "drone" users. The lawmaker that wrote the bill became a big help to us as he always mentioned our air show at the public hearings.
This is what I believe we must do, get people out to the fields and educate them. I think that the whole "drone" thing will continue to do damage to itself with countless acts of recklessness. Bring the public out and show them that we fly VLOS. Put them on a buddy box and let them enjoy flying for themselves, make friends with the public!